In American life, we think we are most free when we don't need anybody. Exactly what Alzheimer's represents is absolute dependency - That's what we all need to learn - how deeply we need one another.

- Stanley Hauerwas, Professor of Theological Ethics

A good traveler is one who does not know where he is going to, and a perfect traveler does not know where he came from.

- Lin Yutang, Writer

All real living is meeting.

- Martin Buber, Philosopher

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

- William James, Philosopher

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essayist

They invented hugs to let people know you love them without saying anything.

- Bil Keane, Cartoonist

Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World.

- Christopher Columbus, Explorer

You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.

- A. A. Milne, Author (Winnie the Pooh)

I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

- Albert Schweitzer, Missionary

Nothing is more revealing than movement.

- Martha Graham, Dancer

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat . . .We must find each other.

- Mother Theresa, Saint

If someone listens, or stretches out a hand, or whispers a kind word of encouragement, or attempts to understand a lonely person, extraordinary things begin to happen.

- Loretta Girzartis, Author

Common ground

Jim is a 39-year-old former construction worker with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Since his dementia prevents him from working, he and his wife, Michelle, have been surviving on faith, prayer and the kindness of others. They also are speaking to Memory Bridge groups at high schools around the area, sharing their experiences and their hope with the students.

At Senn High School, they address a remarkably international group of students. There is only one girl who identifies herself as “American” (with a giggle – she’s the minority) when asked her nationality. The others come from Pakistan, Bosnia, Viet Nam, Mexico, Sudan, Ghana, Honduras, and the Philippines. They have volunteered for Memory Bridge, they tell Michelle, to help people and to learn about Alzheimer’s.

But these kids, perhaps more than any other Memory Bridge group, already know what life is like for their buddies.

“Have you ever been lost?” Michelle asks the class. The kids giggle and nod. Living in a big city, in a new country, surrounded by a language that is not their native tongue – of course they have been lost. “That’s what if feels like for Jim,” Michelle explains.

She talks about how people treat you differently when you can’t communicate or can’t find the right word for something. The students nod in understanding. English is the native language for only one of them; they know what she means.

“Have any of you had any experience with poverty?” Michelle asks. “Do you know what it’s like to do without?” Now the kids shift uncomfortably in their seats, and as Michelle looks around the “global village” of the classroom, her face registers dawning awareness: these kids know what she’s talking about. Of course they do.